It has been almost a year since the last release in this series, but from the very first bar of the Laetatus sum setting which opens this new volume the wait seems to have been worth it: over a swaggering bass ostinato Monteverdi weaves an exuberant array of melodies—with widely contrasted instruments and voices—to draw us once more into the world of Venetian extravagance.
The programme continues with a range of motets, the forces called upon varying from solo voice in the declamatory Salve Regina to multiple soloists and polychoral opulence in the Beatus vir setting.